Contents
Chapter Two: Like Water Hurled Out the Door
Overview
Zetian limps home through the terraces, revisiting the trauma of her bound feet and glimpsing the allure of Chrysalis power. At home, a battle stream highlights Li Shimin’s lethal reputation, sharpening stakes. Family tensions erupt: Zetian rejects her father’s control, shatters her mother’s comforting delusions, and emotionally severs herself from them.
Summary
Struggling along mountain paths on bound, agonized feet, Zetian heads home before curfew, reflecting on leaving Yizhi after revealing her plan to enlist and kill Yang Guang. Passing the terraces, she recalls the brutal ritual that crushed her feet and the constant pain and control it enforces.
Men ogle her as she crosses the paddies. A distant Chrysalis–Hundun battle sends tremors through the earth, briefly igniting Zetian’s fantasy of piloting and wielding power. She reaches home, where her mother quietly urges presentability for the army’s arrival, prompting Zetian to weigh the consequence that killing an Iron Noble would doom her entire family.
Inside, the men watch a livestream featuring the Vermilion Bird, piloted by Li Shimin, whose partners always die. Zetian’s father confronts her appearance and chastity; she evades him and locks herself in her grandparents’ room, defiantly unwrapping her feet amid the household’s noise and the battle broadcast.
Alone, she soaks her feet and broods on being a tradable daughter—“like water hurled out the door.” After dinner, her mother brings porridge and urges peace, praising Zetian’s supposed maturity and strong spirit pressure, fantasizing she might survive as Yang Guang’s Balanced Match and become an Iron Princess.
Zetian explodes, calling the dream a delusion used to justify her sacrifice for family gain. She smashes the bowl, asserting her leverage before enlistment and rejecting her mother’s narrative of heroism and duty. Overwhelmed and resolute, Zetian declares she hopes to have nothing to do with her mother in the next life.
Who Appears
- Wu ZetianProtagonist; returns home, recalls foot-binding trauma, yearns for power, clashes with family over enlistment, rejects mother’s fantasies, hardens resolve.
- Zetian’s motherUrges presentability and family peace, praises Zetian’s spirit pressure, clings to Iron Princess fantasy; receives Zetian’s rejection.
- Zetian’s fatherConfronts Zetian over appearance and chastity; triggers her defiance and retreat behind a locked door.
- DalangZetian’s brother; watches the battle stream, jokes, and benefits from hoped-for enlistment money.
- GrandmotherPast enforcer of Zetian’s foot-binding; appears descaling fish as domestic authority lingers.
- GrandfatherFixates on the battle stream, raising volume as household conflict escalates.
- Gao YizhiWealthy friend; recalled for kindness and failed attempt to dissuade Zetian from her mission.
- Li ShiminNotorious Vermilion Bird pilot; his lethal reputation underscores the dangers of pairing and war.
- Yang GuangAce pilot and Zetian’s assassination target; symbol of the system demanding girls’ sacrifices.